Coaches/leaders

I’ve been reflecting on poor leadership as I mentioned in a post a few weeks ago about workplaces in Australia. Thought I might talk about this in relation to sport because that’s always fun.
Many would know that the former supercoach Jose Mourinho was sacked by Manchester United in December. He wasn’t getting the results, but why not? Because he relentlessly undermined the players, bagging them in press conferences and apparently in private, saying they weren’t good enough even though they are expensive and highly regarded. The players didn’t want to play for him. Furthermore, his negative tactics stifled their creativity. This is always a bad situation. Pundits try to blame the players, but the manager’s first and perhaps most important job is to get the players wanting to play. Lose the players, whether or not they are supposedly “spoilt” or “arrogant”, and you have failed as a manager. So Man United brought in Ole Gunner Solskjaer whose first aim was to back the players and get them feeling good again, enjoying the football, and lo and behold, they have lost only one game in the Premier League under him and have won through to the quarter finals of the Champions League! Who’d have thought that trusting and supporting and encouraging your players and indeed staff actually works!
I suspect I’ll have more thoughts on this subject in later posts…